Over the past decade, retail has changed its face by adapting technology as the prominent leader at every step of its growth. Customers are getting more options to purchase products online without any hassle. The retail revolution is happening faster than ever. In this blog, we are trying to find out the trends and opportunities in “Digital Commerce”, a word that is buzzing around the retail world since the pandemic starts, and continues in this post-pandemic era too.
What is Digital Commerce?
During the pandemic, B2B and B2C retailers have expanded their business online, so that customers can purchase products online without visiting brick-and-mortar stores. Digital commerce is the term we used to represent the selling and buying of products using digital platforms or channels like the Internet, mobile, social media, and marketplaces. Even after the pandemic, this trend continues due to the convenience it gives customers, and people love shopping online. Now digital commerce becomes a part of the growing global economy.
What are the trends in Digital Commerce?
More than a selling and buying platform digital commerce is a business strategy that involves creating touch points to measure the customer experience and profits. According to Statista, global retail e-commerce sales are projected to reach $6.54 trillion in 2023. The graph below shows the value of e-commerce sales in the United Arab Emirates from 2015-2022(published by the Statista research department). It clearly shows the rapid growth.
The growth in digital commerce involves many trends including mobile commerce, e-commerce, social media as e-commerce platforms, Omni channel commerce, etc. The growth in digital commerce doesn’t mean that brick-and-mortar stores are outdated, these two are interlinked in many ways to increase the profit for the brands. This shows the relevance of Omni channel marketing. Recent studies show that people search for products online before going directly to a physical store. Maybe the final checkout will be from a physical store after trying out and checking the quality of the product in person.
With the rise of mobile technology mobile commerce becomes more advanced and popular among all. The retail apps help customers with easy shopping and payments in EMIs. Social media is another great digital commerce trend that customers are getting more used to during the pandemic times. Many online stores bloomed at that time. People start selling goods through social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
What are the opportunities in Digital Commerce?
Digital commerce put forward many opportunities for businesses to grow their brand value and thereby profit.
Digital commerce helps retailers to expand the global reach of a business. Even if a small business will get global reach and customers around the world will get to know about the business through digital channels. A business that can provide a consistent customer experience can definitely become successful with the help of digital commerce. All you need is an organized marketing strategy that includes connecting all your business channels and working on basis of Omni channel marketing to provide a seamless shopping experience to the customers.
Digital commerce can provide a personalized shopping experience to customers. Personalization can be done through digital receipts, promotions, loyalty programs, early sales access, virtual fitting rooms, etc.
One of the major advantages of digital commerce is cost reduction. For a startup business, the early stages are financially more crucial when compared to businesses those already established and marked their footprints in the market.
By using a Point of sale solution like Retail Pro retailers can easily implement Omni channel marketing into their business. Retail Prism 2.1 has an adaptable design that integrates digital commerce platforms and in-store sales to provide relevant customer data analytics to boost online and offline sales.
By understanding the trends businesses can develop a separate marketing strategy for digital commerce that is unique and efficient to meet customer needs. If you couldn’t streamline your operations in digital commerce platforms and in-store, let’s suggest you some solutions to unify all your solutions and empower your business. Please feel free to contact us.